What’s killing my crickets???

[J4ckdaw-]

Almost $20 worth of crickets have just died off for an unexplained reason, even though they are kept in the best of the best conditions. 20 gallon tank, 75 degrees, egg cartons, weekly gut loads, daily water (through cotton balls), I clean out the dead ones, they have a mesh top… I don’t know what happened, what do you think?

 

[KarrieRee]

Almost $20 worth of crickets have just died off for an unexplained reason, even though they are kept in the best of the best conditions. 20 gallon tank, 75 degrees, egg cartons, weekly gut loads, daily water (through cotton balls), I clean out the dead ones, they have a mesh top… I don’t know what happened, what do you think?

I have no idea --- I never had good luck w/ crickets so I quit feeding them years ago-- they stunk so bad as well --- and they were constantly escaping -- some others on here might have some ideas

 

[Chris.]

It's been a while but I used to keep and breed crickets as well. They just die easy in my experience so I switched to locusts and dubias.

Weekly feeding might be not enough, I fed them daily or every other day with greens and kept some palets or oats in the tank all the time. Also I did not give any water, they get all from the food and high humidity could lead to funal growth and infections.
You might consider organic food as they are quite susceptible to pesticides.

Also if your colony has parasites it's really hard to keep it from spreading and crickets get those easy.

What breed do you have? Do they have yellow dots on their backs?

 

[J4ckdaw-]

It's been a while but I used to keep and breed crickets as well. They just die easy in my experience so I switched to locusts and dubias.

Weekly feeding might be not enough, I fed them daily or every other day with greens and kept some palets or oats in the tank all the time. Also I did not give any water, they get all from the food and high humidity could lead to funal growth and infections.
You might consider organic food as they are quite susceptible to pesticides.

Also if your colony has parasites it's really hard to keep it from spreading and crickets get those easy.

What breed do you have? Do they have yellow dots on their backs?

Hi,

Thanks for your detailed response! I offer them food in large amounts, so they won’t ever run out of food. They also have oats available if they run out of greens.

I have the common brown type… not sure what they’re called exactly, but they do not have yellow dots on their backs.

 

[AHBD]

Years agon a cricket virus came on the scene and shook up the reptile feeder companies. The virus does NOT affect our reptiles but it kills the crix quickly. Many would be seen on their backs, legs kicking as they died. A lot of companies switched from the brown house [ Acheta domesticus ] to the banded cricket [ Gryllis assimilis ] which was not affected by the virus. I don't know if the brown cricket virus still affects some of them or not or if that's the type you had. You can Google them to see the difference.

Having said that, can you post pics of your set up to see if there's anything that might have contributed to their death ? I still buy crickets at times but not in bulk and I don't have problems with mine.

 

[xp29]

Almost $20 worth of crickets have just died off for an unexplained reason, even though they are kept in the best of the best conditions. 20 gallon tank, 75 degrees, egg cartons, weekly gut loads, daily water (through cotton balls), I clean out the dead ones, they have a mesh top… I don’t know what happened, what do you think?

In my experience living is all it takes to make them die. (I'm being a wiseguy, but serious also) I think, looking at them, talking to them, talking to someone near them, feeding them, not feeding them, sneezing in the general area, I could go on for days lol.
The one thing that don't kill them is putting them in your pets habitat, the lil monsters seem to survive in there very well, go figure huh.
Over crowding is a big killer of them. I've had bettet luck keeping them alive when they have more room.

 

[Claudiusx]

The only way I was ever able to keep crickets alive is if I only bought enough to last me a few days

-Brandon

 

[AHBD]

Mine last a couple weeks or so with little die off but when keeping the large size crix their lifespan is already ticking away and those go more quickly. O.P were the crickets shipped ? It's possible that they get too hot or cold in transit but that's probably not a problem in most of the country this time of year.

 

[Chris.]

The Gryllus bimaculatus are way more resilient in my experience. Those would be the ones with two yellow dots:

 

[Claudiusx]

I get those in my garage. Can confirm, they are immortal.

-Brandon

 

[AHBD]

The Gryllus bimaculatus are way more resilient in my experience. Those would be the ones with two yellow dots:
View attachment 86038

Who sells those though ? I've never seen either for sale. I Googled, both of those are illegal to sell in the U.S outside of Ca.

 

[NickAVD]

I also had mass deaths in crickets. Usually the cause was overheating or low humidity. Perhaps this will help you understand the reason for the extinction of the colony.

 

[Chris.]

Who sells those though ? I've never seen either for sale. I Googled, both of those are illegal to sell in the U.S outside of Ca.

Ah, sorry, I didn't know that. Here in germany I can get them around the corner basically.

 

[J4ckdaw-]

Mine last a couple weeks or so with little die off but when keeping the large size crix their lifespan is already ticking away and those go more quickly. O.P were the crickets shipped ? It's possible that they get too hot or cold in transit but that's probably not a problem in most of the country this time of year.

They were bought from a reptile specialists store just yesterday, all 200 or so died around the same time… and I mean all of them- not a single cricket left

 

[J4ckdaw-]

Years agon a cricket virus came on the scene and shook up the reptile feeder companies. The virus does NOT affect our reptiles but it kills the crix quickly. Many would be seen on their backs, legs kicking as they died. A lot of companies switched from the brown house [ Acheta domesticus ] to the banded cricket [ Gryllis assimilis ] which was not affected by the virus. I don't know if the brown cricket virus still affects some of them or not or if that's the type you had. You can Google them to see the difference.

Having said that, can you post pics of your set up to see if there's anything that might have contributed to their death ? I still buy crickets at times but not in bulk and I don't have problems with mine.

Actually? My previous batch of crickets had those exact symptoms, despite being kept in the same conditions… almost half of them died off in a night, and those who were alive would spasm for a while before getting back to normal when I touched them. I made a post about it a bit ago.

I’ll attach photos soon